Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 77

It seemed as though nothing could be done to save him when, at the last moment, a “great day of forgiveness” was announced on the birth of an heir to the throne.

Who acts: It · What happens: seem, do, save, announce · To what, where: nothing, father, last moment, birth

This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 seemed	nsubj
2	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	2 seemed	advmod
4	though	though	SCONJ	_	8 done	mark
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	8 done	nsubj:pass
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 done	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 done	aux:pass
8	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 seemed	xcomp
9	to	to	PART	_	10 save	mark
10	save	save	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 done	advcl
11	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 save	obj
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	27 announced	advmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 moment	punct
14	at	at	ADP	_	17 moment	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 moment	det
16	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 moment	amod
17	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 announced	nsubj:pass
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 day	punct
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 day	det
20	“	"	PUNCT	_	22 day	punct
21	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 day	amod
22	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 moment	appos
23	of	of	ADP	_	24 forgiveness	case
24	forgiveness	forgiveness	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 day	nmod
25	”	"	PUNCT	_	22 day	punct
26	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 announced	aux:pass
27	announced	announce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 save	advcl
28	on	on	ADP	_	30 birth	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 birth	det
30	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 announced	obl
31	of	of	ADP	_	33 heir	case
32	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	33 heir	det
33	heir	heir	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 birth	nmod
34	to	to	ADP	_	36 throne	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 throne	det
36	throne	throne	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 heir	nmod
37	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 seemed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	seem	past	It			vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute
2	do	could · passive		nothing		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality
3	save	to-infinitive		father		vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
4	announce speech: other	past · passive		the last moment	the birth of a heir to the throne	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

Text: «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Project Gutenberg book 75089 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/77/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 77

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 77